Lagos bus driver threatens strike over fuel price hike, fraudulent filling stations, extortion by agberos

By Rotimi Akinola

Car drivers, bike riders, and domestic users of petrol are suffering from the hike in the price of fuel.

Nigerians from all works of life are known to be very hard working, and Ernest Aliri is one of them.

He can’t imagine waking up in the morning with nothing on his mind other than chilling. For, him, that’s as torturing as hell.

But, then, that’s exactly what he did for the whole of last week. He has recovered from that hiatus, but a relapse is imminent.

“I had to park my danfo (commercial yellow bus) the whole of last week because the price of petrol just doesn’t make any sense,” Aliri said in a chat with our reporter who boarded his bus from Allen Avenue to Palmgroove.

For the past three months, Nigerians have been groaning under the weight of petrol scarcity and price hike. Aliri said he had to take a break from work because the burden almost crushed his financial spine.

Aliri: "For a country with huge crude oil deposits, this is a big mess." — Aliri: “For a country with huge crude oil deposits, this is a big mess.”

“All I did last week was eating the little garri I had with my family, and we watched a lot of TV,” he said.

“The garri is gone now and that’s why I decided to work yesterday and today (Tuesday). But I’m not sure I can sustain this for long.

“Things have not changed at all. It’s getting worse. We are buying fuel for N110 per litre and the attendants even harass us like we’re animals.”

“I had a terrible experience last week. I was trying to buy this expensive fuel and I got into an argument with another buyer who almost slapped me. I had to refrain myself from trouble as I figured it made no sense to fight over this mess.”

“It’s a huge mess in a country where we have so much oil.”

Although the petroleum industry in the country is the largest on the African continent, Nigerians still experience long lasting petrol scarcities whenever the government clashes with oil-subsidy-demanding marketers.

Any time that happens, everybody suffers. So does Aliri.

He said the situation is further complicated by filling stations whom he claimed have adjusted their meters to cheat customers. That echoes the concern of a citizen reporter who got in touch with Newsroom a while back.

“Some of them are selling at the official N87 price but have adjusted their meters. That’s why you should be suspicious of those who refuse to sell into kegs because they know the customer will easily detect their fraudulent practice.”

Mobile filling station in Sabo, Lagos, is accused of adjusting its meters.

“How will you feel if you buy 10 litres petrol and it cannot fill your 10-litre keg? They know what they are doing.”

Aliri said the price of fuel that took him through four return trips on the Allen-Ojuelegba route now took him through two.

“I burn fuel unnecessarily in the regular Lagos traffic jams, and the agberos are not making it easy. They collect thousands of naira from me every day.”

“I think I will go for another break because I can’t really afford this. I’m bleeding money.”